TEAM HERALD
: A contractor has accused Acting Chairperson of Sanquelim Municipal Council (SMC) Damu Ghadi of his involvement in illegal cutting trees at Virdi-Sanquelim.
Ghadi has, however, denied any involvement in the matter.
According to information, a mining company in August asked SMC to cut some trees along the roadside at Virdi after permission was sought from the Forest department. However, due to financial crunch, SMC turned down the request and in turn asked the mining company to carry out the work of cutting about 32 trees which were marked by the department.
The issue again came up last week when the Forest department got an anonymous call stating that there is illegal felling of trees at Virdi by a contractor. The Forest department under the guidance of RFO Paresh Porob, Echit Naik, Dinesh Naik and Madan Parab inspected the area and it was found that 13 trees were cut, out of which eight were cut illegally without any permission.
Acting swiftly, the Forest department arrested the contractor, Premanand Kamat from Gaonkarwada-Virdi, who in turn named two of his workers who were also involved in the crime.
Surprisingly, the contractor also named SMC acting chairperson Damu Ghadi and told the Forest department that he had given him the orders to cut the trees.
When contacted, SMC Chief Officer Pradeep Naik said they had referred the matter of cutting trees back to the mining company due to financial crunch.
Speaking to Herald, Damu Ghadi denied any involvement in the matter. “I am unaware about any such matter and I had not given any verbal or written instruction to any contractor to cut the trees. I feel all these allegations are politically motivated allegations and deny them all,” he stated.
However despite the denial, suspense looms as to who had instructed to cut the trees even as the Forest department is investigating into the case.
